The present invention relates to the field of computer user interfaces, and more specifically, to a method and a system for triggering display of an application.
A touch screen in a smart device has become more and more widespread, and multi-task systems have been achieved in some smart devices. Existing multi-task systems usually utilize a split screen layout to display interfaces of multiple applications. FIG. 2 illustrates a screenshot of an example of multi-task system of a smart device in the prior art. In the screenshot of the smart device shown in FIG. 2, interfaces of multiple (for example, 4) applications are displayed simultaneously, and interfaces of the 4 applications occupy ¼ of the screen respectively. This split screen layout is predefined, and the position and size of the interface of each individual application that is initially displayed are fixed and cannot be defined by a user, thereby lacking flexibility.
In addition, in smart devices of the prior art, operation of triggering such split screen display of multiple applications is troublesome. For example, in a case where only a first application at the upper left corner in FIG. 2 is executed in the smart device (at this time, the interface of the first application is displayed in a full screen), if a second application at the upper right corner in FIG. 2 is to be launched to be executed simultaneously with the first application, firstly, it may be necessary, at this time, to return to the desktop of the system by e.g., pressing the Home key of the smart device or performing other operations. Then, if there are multiple pages of the desktop, it is also necessary to slide the desktop to turn pages to find the shortcut of the second application. When the shortcut of the second application is found, the second application is launched by tapping the shortcut of the second application on the current page of the desktop such that the second application and the first application are displayed in a split screen. At this time, the first application and the second application may occupy, for example, a half screen, respectively. If a third application and a fourth application at the lower part in FIG. 2 are also launched and executed simultaneously, it is necessary to repeat the above operations in order, that is, pressing the Home key, sliding the desktop multiple times, tapping the corresponding shortcut. As shown in FIG. 2, interfaces of the first application to the fourth application displayed through the above operations are shown. Here, display positions and sizes of interfaces of respective applications are predefined and fixed, and cannot be specified by the user. In addition, such a method of triggering display-in-one-screen of multiple tasks needs to perform operations of many steps, thereby making the user's operation overcomplicated.